Articles | Volume 27, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-27-235-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Brief communication: Residence time of energy in the atmosphere
Abstract
In atmospheric chemistry, a parameter called residence time is defined for each gas as , where M represents the mass of the gas in the atmosphere and F is the total average influx or outflux, which in time averages are equal. In this brief communication, we extend this concept from matter to energy which is also a conservative quantity and estimate the average residence time of energy in the atmosphere, which amounts to about 58 d. A similar estimation for the residence time of energy in the Sun is of the order of 107 years, which agrees with the Kelvin–Helmholtz timescale.
1 Introduction
2 Forms of energy in the atmosphere and residence time
3 Estimation of the solar energy and the residence time of energy in the Sun
4 Conclusions
Data availability
Author contributions
Competing interests
Review statement
References